Asian Pork Hotpot – 7sp

I cook with lean pork steak quite often as it’s often a nice change from chicken. I’m always on the lookout for new ways to use it and so when I came across this recipe on the Good Food website I knew I had to give it a go. I adapted the recipe to make it both Weight Watchers friendly and added a few bits that I thought would improve the dish too. The result was gorgeous. It had a really different flavour to anything I’ve made before and even though its technically a hot pot, it feels lovely and light and summery.

I served my hotpot with 40g of rice and Asian broccoli (recipe here) so the whole meal came to only 13sp. It was extremely filling and bursting with different flavours, so much so I might skip the rice next time!

Ingredients

Serves 4 = 7sp (previously 6pp) each

1 tbsp olive oil

400g lean pork steak, cut into large chunks

2 aubergines, cut into large chunks

2 peppers, deseeded and sliced (I used red)

2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

4 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

2 onions, finely sliced

Large knob fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced

1 red chilli, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 bunch coriander, leaves and stalks separated, stalks finely chopped

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

Large lime, quartered

Method

Pre heat the oven to 180c. Spray an ovenproof pan with low cal cooking spray and brown the meat well (around 8 minutes), then remove from the pan and pop on a plate. Add the oil to the pan, heat for a few seconds and then add the aubergine and brown on all sides. Remove from the pan and pop on to the same plate as the pork.

Next, add the sugar to the pan with a small splash of water and let caramelise slightly for around 10 seconds. Then return the pork and aubergine back into the pan with the star anise and cinnamon and coat in the sticky caramel.

Add the onions, pepper, ginger, garlic and half the chilli and cook for a few minutes with the pork. Add the coriander stalks and fish sauce and enough water to come about a third of the way up the hotpot. Cover with a lid (or tin foil if you don’t have a lid) and pop the dish, undisturbed, in the oven for 1 hour.

After an hour, remove from the oven and add the juice of half the lime. Stir through half the coriander leaves and the remaining chilli, and scatter over the rest of the coriander.